06-05-28

Sunday

Boat and garfish

It seems that I'm in for a period of bad fishing for the moment. There's really nothing for me to report in the field of good fishing and big catches but still there are some things worth reporting. I've been mentioning that terrible species of the garfish from time to time but now I can show you a picture of it.

I thought that maybe many of you foreigners don't know what it looks like. So here it is. Of course I have nothing against it as such. It's a nice little fish, all right. But it keeps attacking my fly all the time and I don't want that. Often it can be hard to loosen it from the hook without hurting it. The best way to avoid that is to take time out regarding fishing in the merry month of May, which I've done. Almost. But they are still at large, I noticed today.  More than ever where I was actually and at last my luck ran out and I hooked one. Or it hooked itself rather. I mentioned earlier that all predator fish went for the head in it's strike but not this one. Yes, the garfish is an exception from that rule.  It hunts in an altogether different manner.

Here in Sweden it is called "beak-pike". It uses it's little beak as a swordfish does it's sword. It rushes on schools of little fish and strikes wildly about with it. Then it shocks and stuns a few, it it gets lucky or is an excellent fencer.. Then the garfish can eat his dinner nice and easy. That is the reason for  all the attacks on your fly and pulling on the line all the time in the most irritating manner. 
This one did hook itself on its back. So it was easy for me to loosen it without hurting it. Of course I first dipped my hand in the water to get it soaking wet. In that way you do the least damage to the fish's in some cases sensitive skin. I always do that. Today it was a very easy job because I was standing in the water in rain.

Another new thing is that now the summer season has begun. Now it's as good as impossible to fish in waders from the landside. "Too many fish in the sea" was a false statement from the Young Rascals in the sixties. The correct way to put it would be "To many people on the shore" instead. That's where my boat comes in.

It's a nice little ship in ABS-plastic which I bought a long time ago. Anno Domini 1975 to be exact. A black ship of Death to many fish, I can further tell you because back in those days I was a miserable, merciless pike killer. But soon I saw the light and stopped that horrible, nasty business of killing our friends the pikes. Only a few years after I laid the bait casting equipment aside and started to fly fish for pike instead.

I use the boat in two different ways. Like today and here, where I went out to a little island and parked it there.  Then I put on my waders and fished along the shores of that island. It's a new technique for me but has it's advantages.
The other way is to fish directly from the boat. Probably I will do both later on. In the mornings when the wind often is low I can fish from the boat end later in the day I will go ashore. But I prefer from the shore although I probably catch more fish from the boat. We'll see.

But I still can't understand why the fishing for ordinary pike today turned out to be so bad. The time of season, the weather and the chosen island, were a perfect match, I thought. 
On the way to that little island I thought I'd catch at least ten or even fifteen pikes and probably some really big ones as well today. But one thing I have learned through the years is that a period of bad luck will end and give way to it's opposite. Or as I maybe rather like to think; when the fishing is poor it's bad luck but when the going is good, it all depends on my undisputable skill and experience.